Benvenuto a Roma!

First day in Italy - Awoke at 1:30 a.m. (7:30 am in Rome) to my face flat on the tray table in front of me. Drool down my face. I felt sorry for the guy next to me who was eating his breakfast beside my pool of drool. Welcome to Italy, huh? I missed breakfast but the three cups of coffee kept me up to speed. I didn't feel tired at all even though I barely got any sleep. Mom - if you didn't believe me when I told you that I didn't like kids that much, well now I'm 100% sure and now you know for sure. Two kids in front of me on the plane, two behind me. Cartoons. Insane laugher. Enough said. I thought I had struck some good luck when I boarded the plane (which was supposed to be a full flight) and had an empty seat next to me for two hours.... Until a guy came up to me and said his tv wasn't working. I lost the extra seat and he gained my drool. I guess it is a fair trade. Haha. So... I was the first student to arrive for the cultural introduction to Italy program. My cab driver drove a Mercedes. Needless to say, I arrived in style. He dropped me off at the hotel called the Hotel Nordic Nuova Roma. And then he left me... At the door. I walked inside. Nothing. Okay... I'll just stand here awkwardly. Who took my bags? Where'd they go? "ah, ciao Bella. Benvenuto a Roma. Come ti chiami?" Come on Italian 1001. Let's show them what we can do. "Mi Chiamo Alicia Muzzy." yes! I did it. So I checked in. Apparently it is not just SAI doing this week in Tuscany. It's multiple student study abroad programs. Even some high school programs. There are mostly girls in the programs. Not many guys want to study abroad in Italy! Why not?! Since I was the first one there and it was my first day in Italy, I was hesitant to just leave and walk around on my own. I waited a little while and a girl named Jenna showed up from another program called CIS. She is doing this week along with a three week program in Florence. She is taking a Travel Writing class there. She and I walked around for hours before we could check into our hotel room. We got lost in Roma. It was kinda nice actually. just walking around and stumbling upon neat places. No itinerary. No tacky map. We would see a big building or dome and say, "not sure what that is, but it looks important! Better get a picture." Those places became our reference points, and after a few hours we really got the layout of the city. We randomly just came upon the Colosseum! Oh awesome is that? Turn the corner, and BAM! If we weren't awake yet, that sure woke us up. We were starving so we went to a pizzeria for some lunch. We wanted to start off easy before we get into the fancy restaurants and corse menus. But... Pizza guy spoke no English, and our Italian skills were lacking. So, I spoke Spanish. Hey it worked, so no laughing :) tonight is our welcome dinner and orientation for the Tuscany week. Wish me luck! I'll post photos soon!